Texas Tech and South Plains College Teaming up to Train New Game Wardens

Law enforcement and natural resources management are core of transfer program.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department hires about 50 new game wardens annually –
if it can find that many people trained for the job. Texas Tech University and South
Plains College are now partners in a new transfer program designed to fill that need.

According to Mark Wallace, chairman of Texas Tech’s Department of Natural Resources
Management, the requirements to be a game warden changed about five years ago, so
that people considered for the job had to have a four-year degree. They used to take
people from all walks of life and put them through the department’s own training program.

“Programs around the state are associate of arts degrees in criminal justice programs.
There’s no conduit for those folks to go get a 4-year degree outside of criminal justice,”
said Wallace. “We proposed to create a 2+2 program to train folks for game warden
positions that are not limited to Texas Parks &Wildlife; they could work for New Mexico
Game & Fish, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or a variety of other law enforcement/ wildlife-related
agencies.”

Students take two years in criminal justice at SPC to obtain the associates degree,
then transfer to Texas Tech for two more years in natural resources management. If
they go an additional summer at SPC, they can complete certification as a peace officer
in Texas. This allows them to work in many small towns but does not allow them into
a lot of the four-year degree tracks.

“We are very excited to have this agreement with Texas Tech that, I think, will enhance
from both our perspectives, the educational quality of those students going into the
game warden field,” said Randy Robertson, department chairperson in Professional Services
and Energy and assistant professor of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement at South
Plains College.

Robertson said he hopes that the partnership will spur similar agreements or programs
that could potentially share their resources in other areas of criminal justice with
other departments at Texas Tech.

“Texas Tech has a great program that deals with the wildlife and conservation side
of this job and we have a long reputation for giving a quality education to those
who want to pursue criminal justice or law enforcement, not only in the state of Texas
but in many other areas of the country,” Robertson said. “Students within this program
also have the opportunity to continue their education with us to facilitate their
attaining their Texas Peace Officer license through our police academy if they so
choose, once they have attained their degrees through Texas Tech and SPC.”

“The unique thing – and this is the biggest challenge we had getting it through the
system – is that we’re accepting courses that we don’t offer here at Texas Tech for
credit for one of our degrees,” Wallace said. “So we’re taking advantage of things
offered at other schools to create essentially a new degree.”

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu and on Twitter
@TexasTechMedia.